Killers Among Us
by Zixes
Summary: The warriors of RockClan are fierce, but they're also very loyal to each other and care a lot about their Code of Igneous, which neglects any killing no matter the reason. But now things have changed. Bodies of cats from everywhere have been appearing daily. And the weirdest thing is, these bodies have a medium sized rock stuffed into their mouths. Is a serial killer on the loose?
1. Dath of an Unknown

Killers Among Us

The warriors of RockClan are fierce, but they're also very loyal to each other and care a lot about their Code of Igneous, which neglects any killing no matter the reason. But now things have changed. Bodies of cats from everywhere have been appearing daily. And the weirdest thing is, these bodies have a medium sized rock stuffed into their mouths. Is a serial killer on the loose in this devoted Clan?

 **NOTE: I won't tell you who the killer is obviously, until the end of the story, but I can tell you the method it uses:**

 **It puts poppy seeds in the cat's food if it turns away (because the killer is fast and sneaky and has no scent). When the cat eats the food, it falls asleep. The killer drags the cat away to a small cave on the far edge of the forest RockClan live near. It makes its victim claustrophobic. The panic drives the cat out into the forest. The part of the forest the killer has chosen is riddled with badgers and foxes. The killer lures one of these creatures to its victim. It will attack the victim while it is still weak. The killer will defeat the fox/badger, chasing it away, saving the cat and letting it believe it is safe. Just when the cat thinks it is safe to turn its back, the killer strikes, killing instantly. It then drags its victim to anywhere it wants to (near RockClan), leaves the body, but not before putting a rock inside the victim's mouth. The sign of the killer. The victim is physically and mentally tortured. The killer loves playing with the minds of others. Lulling one into a false sense of security, and then stabbing them in the back, literally, is its favourite game.**

 _Whisper…_

 _Purr…_

 _Crack…_

The first sounds the cat woke up to, hissing crazily.

 _Cackle…_

 _Growl…_

 _Snarl…_

It drowsily got to its paws, scenting the air. The smells were confusing. It blocked its air supply for a moment, trying to think through its sleepiness.

 _Why did I come here?_

It opened its eyes, trying to take in its environment briefly. But there was nothing to see. The air was heavy. Everything was black.

 _Oh no. Did I sleepwalk again?_

The cat kept its sleepy eyes open, trying to gather light so it could see. Eventually it made out that it was enclosed in a small cave. It scrabbled around, trying to find a way out in a crevice, but the only exit was covered in thorns and brambles. But they seemed like they had been put there to deliberately imprison the cat. It frightened the cat to think of what could be near it. The faint light that wasn't illuminating anything did not help.

The darkness felt like it was closing in, trying to block the cat's vision with every passing moment. It suddenly panicked, pawing viciously at the blockage, trying to get out. Tendrils wrapped themselves around the cat's paws, immobilising his struggles.

"Help! Somebody help me! Please!" it yowled.

There was no reply. The cat scratched even more harshly, trying to free himself. For a moment, it became a monster, ripping the thorns and brambles to shreds, spittle flying off its lips as though it was suffering from a terrible illness. Finally, it created a small opening.

Enveloped in pure desperation, the cat flew through the little opening, tearing some of its fur on the thorns, gasping for breath. Once it erupted from the blockage, it collapsed, breathing heavily, eyes closed once more as it tried to scan its surroundings. It was at the edge of the dreaded forest.

Judging by the darkness in the sky, the shining stars, the faint moonlight, it was quarter moon, one of the darkest times of the month, when hardly any light would show the way at night. But how had the cat gotten out here, by itself, in such a hazardous place, with no recollection whatsoever of moving from its nest?

While it lay down weakly, trying to remember any small detail through its drowsiness, it became acutely aware that it was not alone. The cat uneasily sensed the air, but detected nothing but pine sap and ferns. The intruder must have covered its scent with the same material as the forest around it. There just wasn't any trace of it, no scent, no sound.

But its presence could be felt, and it was getting stronger. The intruder, whatever it was, was closing in. The cat had to make a move.

It carefully clawed its way up the nearby hill, the shock of being completely enclosed still making it suffer with lack of mobility. It was still afraid, because it knew the presence was a danger. If it lurked and didn't want to show itself, then it wasn't a cat it knew, and it had to get away quickly.

The rocks scraped beneath that cat's claws as it scrambled up and over the hill. It knew it was leaving a clumsy trail, but it had to get back to RockClan, where it would be safe.

Suddenly, it detected movement and looked back. The tendrils through the trees were shaking violently. The cat growled in terror, trying to move more rapidly, but it was no use. A fox emerged from the brambles and slinked its way up the hill, russet fur shining in the faint moonlight, eyes glinting with malice. The cat tore at the rocks, willing its limbs to move. The fox closed in, low snarls escaping its foamy lips, its movement displaying pleasure at having found such an easy meal.

"No! No no no no no no no!" the cat screamed.

The screaming enticed the fox, and it closed in for its meal swiftly. It bared its teeth, ready to deal the death blow. The cat shut its eyes, willing the pain and suffering to begin. More snarls now rushed from the vicious animal.

 _I'm never going to see my mate again, am I?_

But though it believed death would come, it never did. The cat realised that the fox was whimpering. It wrenched open its eyes, staring. Another cat was there, its back arched, its eyes crazy pools of evil. The fox was beneath it, gazing up at the cat in terror, clambering to get away. It was drenched in blood.

"Get out of here!" it screeched, lifting its claws and batting ferociously at the bleeding fox.

It yelped, getting to its paws and pelting away, leaving drops of blood on the rocky hill. The defender turned around, and even though the light was faint, the cat recognised its rescuer immediately.

"Thank you! At least I know you. But what are you doing out here this late?"

"Oh… You know… Just killing…"

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad you were here to help me. I thought that fox would torture me. You see, I woke up-"

"I saw the whole thing through."

"You were watching me? Why didn't you help earlier?! It was terrifying!"

"I had to make sure no one was here to see."

"That's understandable, I guess. Is anyone here, then?"

"No. No one is here. No one is anywhere."

The defender had tensed up, moaning softly.

The cat felt concerned and clawed its way down to its rescuer. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine. It's all good. Just wait, please."

"Of course. I will always wait for you. I would be dead without you," meowed the cat happily.

The saviour was still moaning softly, but those moans soon turned to purrs. "Why are you purring? Are you okay? Are you ill? Are you dying?"

The cat leaned in close, trying to nudge the rescuer forward. "Let's go back to camp quickly. It won't be safe out here. We could still be killed."

The word "killed" seemed to rouse the stranger from its strange hunched over position. It turned around slowly. "I can't let you leave."

"Well why not? Have you got something to do? Hunting?"

"Yes, hunting. And you are the hunted."

"What? What are you-"

The defender leapt up from its trance, swiping at its victim's back. The cat collapsed, twitching in agony, screaming.

"Betrayer! Help! There is a traitor in RockCl- NO!"

The traitor had muffled the cat's voice with a rock. It stuffed it into the mouth of its victim. Then it backed off calmly, leaving the cat twisting in anguish.

"Well, looks like you won't be coming back to camp tonight. Have a nice sleep," the betrayer mewed, picking up the cat.

It had stopped moving and now lay very still, eyes pleading with the traitor to help it. The gag prevented it from speaking, so all it could do was beg with vision. The betrayer looked at its victim straight in the eye, then proceeded to drag it away. The victim weakened with each jolt to its now-fragile life.

The traitor laid the cat to rest gently in a ditch near the RockClan camp.

"I hope they find you in pain," it whispered, before kicking earth onto the cat disrespectfully.

It stalked off towards the RockClan camp, tail held high as though it had just been on a successful hunt. Its victim drew in a final faint, shuddering breath around its gag. Then its eyes rolled back into its head, its flanks let go of the breath and it was silent forever.


	2. Through Her Eyes

**If you really liked the first chapter of this story, I hope you will like the second. I'm sorry it took a while, I went on a long-ish hiatus because of school, gaming and my laziness. Please review and check out my other stories, most of which are somewhat funny.**

 **Enjoy :)**

Birchstep was dreaming what most cats would call a dream of "discomfort". Birchstep called it a dream "where hell was born and life in it was eternal." Then nine thousand rocks crushed you one by one. You were still in immense _discomfort_ but it just wouldn't end and let you die. She was in pain, she was paralysed, and everything was dissolving into a maroon haze. A monster was ripping into her flesh, destroying her. Leaving her weak and whimpering beneath it, it dragged her along a rocky mountain, over a plateau and right past the RockClan camp. She moaned pitifully, and her vision was a red haze of absolute fury. How dare this creature take her away and torture her dignity when she had only been a warrior for five moons?!

Although her anger could have overpowered this creature in a few heartbeats, she was unable to move. Through her pain and anger her subconscious yowled encouragement, but she was as still as a rock. She looked down at her paws, dazed and confused. A shocking realisation came to meet her gaze. These were not her pale mottled paws! They were the paws of a dark brown tabby. But why had her fur changed colour? Who had put her here? _How_ had she gotten here? Why in SunClan's name was she dreaming this violent dream?

Her shock seemed to govern her, controlling her movement, only there was no mobility. She feebly tried to lift her head, but her muscles failed to respond to the commands she was giving them. The scent of fox and blood was all around her, choking her, and her only glimpse of the night was the pale moonlight filtering down on the uneven rocky ground below her. The creature dragging her, the fox, seemed to be tiring slowly. Its panting became louder and rapid. A new scent hit Birchstep, a strong familiar scent. The scent of the RockClan camp, with its trickling water and lichen-covered walls.

 _Oh, please let somebody help me!_ She yowled silently, her paws weakly slithering to attach herself to a rock; her movement was no longer prevented and her shock was disappearing for some reason. Muddled by this sudden change, she forgot her discomposure and wisely "pondered".

 _I'm being dragged off by a fox! Why am I calming down?! Wait. What in SunClan's name is_ that _?_

Her sudden wondering trance had been broken by a strange blackness that was creeping into the edges of her vision. Alarmed, Birchstep tried to push back at the darkness through her pain.

She harshly shut her eyes and widened them continually, but the growing blackness was hardly fading away and became stronger as the she-cat tried to repel herself from its inky depths. Gritting her teeth in concentration and frustration, Birchstep pushed harder. The stench of fox was still controlling her, and her instincts told her there was no hope.

Silently snarling in fury, she halted her attempts to be released from the darkness and allowed her weak self to be heaved over the plateau by the fox, the feeling slowly vanishing as her eyes flickered shut. The scent of RockClan had faded, but was still in her scent range due to her long stay in "Birchstep's fantasy world"* and time passing by, only that it wasn't a fantasy. And she was throbbing from the bruising she could feel from the difficult lugging over the rocks.

 _Throbbing? How could I feel throbbing if I'm dying?_

This thought brought on the Birchstep spirit. Her eyes snapped open and she glared around suspiciously before coming to a conclusion. She was blinded by the blackness, but most of her senses were still intact. No sight, but there was taste, touch, hearing and smell, judging by the fox's rank scent, but that was fading or some reason. Was she just fainting? Wow, what an unwanted dramatic ending! She had been planning this for her "Birchstep's fantasy world" blog since she had first become an apprentice. A wasted but still questionable and gruelling finale.

The grunts from the fox and a sudden jolt brought her back to reality, where, of course, her life was in danger. The return of her beloved surprise and instincts helped her to realise that the fox had put her down. However, the creature didn't smell like a fox at all! In fact, there was a complete absence of any fox scent. The scent had disappeared. The only noticeable odours were that of rocks, cold wind, dirty water and the RockClan camp.

Birchstep in the strange body was rolled into a steep ditch with faint scents of crow-food-infested water inside.

 _Ew._

Her subconscious wrinkled its nose in disgust and tried to lead her away from the smell. But Birchstep had stopped moving.

Any idiot would believe that Birchstep had fallen asleep. A rational cat would believe that she had been left to die and was making the journey to SunClan. A genius, like Birchstep's sister Foxberry, would scent the air and listen, realise that the intruder was scraping something together and that they should ditch Birchstep before they were killed as well, even if it was disobeying the Code of Igneous.

Unfortunately, Birchstep was an irrational introvert, and had no idea what was happening, due to another relaxed entry into "Birchstep's fantasy world". She assumed she was fainting from the slippery smell of blood and that the creature had left her alone for a while, but she was dead wrong. The pale she-cat couldn't be bothered to listen to anyone, so why listen to the killer?

The intruder was in fact looking for a decent sized rock to gag its victim. The scraping sounds were the frenzied attempts to dig up the earth and find the perfect rock, as though it were a contest. The killer stopped and finally seemed to have found what it was looking for. It edged closer to the dazed she-cat, then grabbed her head with its _paws,_ smashed her nose and stuffed the rock into her mouth. Birchstep almost choked, convulsing as it blocked her windpipe. She could not breathe through her nose, as blood was pouring out of it. Twitching in alarm and agony, she tried to draw a breath. A small bubble of air entered her lungs.

"Well, looks like you won't be coming back to camp tonight. Have a nice sleep," the thing mewed.

It began dragging her once more, in the direction it had come, purring in satisfaction to taunt her, but all Birchstep could think was:

 _This thing is a cat. It can speak! I know this cat!_

The scent of RockClan strengthened once more, and hope became evident to Birchstep. The killer must be an idiot to bring her so close and not smell other cats, but it seemed to know its way around well enough, leading her to the famed "ditch of ditches" in RockClan, where the apprentices knocked each other into it. Maybe the killer knew of the "ditch of ditches" and was trying to prank the apprentices. Birchstep would do her famed "Kawaii Punch" and knock that SunClan-foxed apprentice into oblivion.

She was, once again, dumped into a smelly ditch.

 _Try to show some compassion! I know you're a cat who kills your own kind, but at least dump me in a river. Filthy!_

The struggle for breath helped her escape her fantasy world once more, and she continued to twitch. The blood flowing from her back was not slowing down, and her nosebleed was preventing her from breathing. The killer walked up to her.

"I hope they find you in pain," it whispered, before kicking earth onto Birchstep.

"Hey, Rocky, I'm dying here!" she tried to snap, but the cat's body she was inhabiting refused to let her sleep.

Suddenly no air was able to pass into her lungs. She was suffocating. The blackness washed in, and her pain slowly began to fade.

 _So this is how it ends. Time for the real dramatic ending of Birchstep, sister to Foxberry and Emberclaw, epic offspring of two cats I never liked or cared about. Time to blog this by copying and pasting the ending from earlier right here: Silently snarling in fury, she halted her attempts to be released from the darkness and allowed her weak self to be heaved over the plateau by the fox, the feeling slowly vanishing as her eyes flickered shut. The scent of RockClan had faded, but was still in her scent range due to her long stay in "Birchstep's fantasy world" and time passing by, only that it wasn't a fantasy._

"Best ending ever," laughed the mottled she-cat, spitting up clots of blood, as she jerked around, drew a final desperate breath due to the stupid idea of laughing and truly let the blackness close in. But before she dove into the seemingly endless depths, she reflected on her life.

 _The killer is a cat. Probably an assassin from PineClan or StreamClan or whatever. I don't care. This is good stuff coming up. I forgot to thank Foxberry for saving me from Gorseclaw lectures several times. I forgot to wash my paws when I was removing ticks from Mousetail and gave Emberclaw a shrew covered in mouse-bile that made him sick for more than half a moon. I forgot to tell my crush that I hate him to throw him off my tail._

Eventually, the cat choked, her eyes rolling back into its head, its now blue tongue sticking gruesomely out of its mouth. A beautiful light appeared, brightening as the dead cat destroyed the darkness and crawled into its loving glow forever.

Birchstep closed her eyes. The light was blinding her, tearing at her soul. Her eyelids flickered. She caught a glimpse of her new body, full-on.

A scream of pure terror emanated from Birchstep.

 _I'm out of its body. I'm merely a lost soul!_

She was merely a flicker of shadow, still with eyes and fur colour, but almost faded either way. Curious, she glanced at her surroundings. There were none.

She watched as the cat whose body she had been trapped in rose, confused, and walked cautiously into the starry light. The pale she-cat observed the other feline until it had been lost to the light.

The young warrior began to pad forwards, but she went in the opposite direction of the cat who had disappeared. The ground become peaty underpaw, and she growled with effort as she pushed onwards.

Her panic threatened to overwhelm her as it had been doing before, but she settled it in her belly, closed her eyes, and ran.

The loving glow of the strange territory seemed to dim and sadly loosened its grip on the young cat as she tried to escape it to return to reality. The very air thickened and it became more difficult for Birchstep to breathe. Panting, she stopped for a moment to open her eyes and observe her current position, only to find that there was no light, only the darkness of a terrifying place she had not meant to blunder into.


End file.
